-
ICE memo outlines new effort to deport unaccompanied minors - Agents are collecting data on the migrant children and sorting them into three priority groups
- ICE moves to require fingerprinting and DNA tests of sponsors
WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is directing immigration agents to track down hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the United States without their parents, expanding the president’s mass deportation effort, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo outlines an unprecedented push to target migrant children who crossed the border illegally as unaccompanied minors. It lays out four phases of implementation, beginning with a planning phase on January 27, though it did not provide a start date for enforcement operations.
More than 600,000 immigrant children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019, according to government data, as the number of migrants caught crossing illegally reached record levels.
Tens of thousands have been ordered deported over the same time frame, including more than 31,000 for missing court hearings, immigration court data show.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the memo and the Trump administration’s plans.
During his first term, Trump introduced a “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of migrant children from their parents at the border. The children were sent to children’s shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a government agency housed within the Department of Health and Human Services, while their parents were detained or deported.
The separation of families, including babies from nursing mothers, was met with widespread international outrage. Trump halted the policy in 2018, though up to 1,000 children may still remain separated from parents, according to Lee Gelernt, the lead American Civil Liberties Union attorney in a related legal challenge.
Yes and still sadly, it’s not as clear cut as some here have hinted. First, are you aware of the social, criminal and econmic difficulties facing the generations of young migrants in Sweden/ Norway? They filled up their prisons and Sweden I think it was who even deployed their army to contain the gangs of young migrants who grew up with every disadvantage you can think of.
On the other hand, China’s/Japan’s economies currently suffer and will undoubtly suffer much worse in the future because they dont have enough kids now who will be needed in the future to support their social security to take care of the elders, but … they will probably, just like Europe did, just import cheap indians/bengladish economic migrant workers who will fill the gap.
Another real sad statistic is the high percent of those orphans who will immediately become homeless as soon as they turn 18. In addition to another real statistic, which you cannot ignore, is the huge % who will just go to prison due to growing up parentless, poor and resentful ( btw your taxes pay for their prison as well). So you paid for the orphanage, shelter, education for thousands of unaccomanied migrant children who will highly likely remain unproductive and leeching to your economy their whole lives.
Btw despite what I think, I’m the father to two adopted kids. So don’t assume or attack me personally, but feel free to correct my negative take on taking in unaccompanied migrant children